AMLO's Plan For Energy

The new president wants to wean Mexico offgasoline imports within six years.

- Amy Stillman

In the tropical heat of southeastern Mexico, bulldozers prep a construction site for a massive crude refinery on the outskirts of Paraiso, an impoverished oil town that’s never lived up to its name. The 160 billion peso ($8.2 billion) Dos Bocas project is central to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s goal of setting Mexico on a course to energy independence. “In three years we will be producing the gasoline that we consume in the country,” López Obrador, known as AMLO, told reporters during a Dec. 9 visit to the site.

His plan is to end the nation’s dependence on fuel imports by building refineries and refurbishing existing ones, so Mexican crude doesn’t have to be sent to the U.S. for processing. AMLO also wants to boost oil production by 53 percent from November levels, to 2.62 million barrels a day, by the end of his six-year term.

These are huge challenges, especially because AMLO, who’s been in office just over a month, wants Mexico to do it all on its own. The leftist leader has lambasted the free-market reforms of his predecessor, calling for at least a three-year hiatus on leasing oil blocks to private energy companies. He also wants to review more than 100 contracts that have already been awarded.